Posts Tagged ‘job searching tips’

Unemployment is hard. HireFriday can help. I will call you during the holidays if you need me.

#HFChat and #HireFriday grows in popularity each day.  As the founder of the HireFriday community, I wish you and yours a thanksgiving filled with joy, peace, happiness, and abundance.  Most of all I want you to find a job that exceeds your most precious career aspirations.  Thanksgiving is the day most of us reflect upon things that fill our hearts with gratitude.  Just one short year ago, I wrote a post “Unemployed and Grateful.”  It tells the story of my own personal journey of career transition.  I created HireFriday & #HFChat because I wanted to bring succor to aching spirits, and access to jobs and to people that can hire. I built a platform for skill building, plus access to resources that enhance, bring forth prosperity, and the attainment of all your career aspirations. I also started #HFChat to start a helpful real-time live conversation with your peers, and professionals who can hire you.  The questions for HireFriday’s Chat #HFChat on November 26th are at the end of this post. I started HireFriday in February, 2010. Since that time, we’ve grown to a community of thousands, and now have new communities in 6 Countries.

Thanksgiving is a day when we consider that which inspires the spirit of thankfulness.  If you have a job the day will come when you find yourself looking for a new job.  If you don’t have a job, and want a job, HireFriday can help you.  Unemployment is hard.  HireFriday can help.  We do this by lending a helping hand, and encouraging a wounded heart.  During the job hunting process there will be highs and lows.  There will be moments when you are job hunting that you will feel exhilirated.  There might be moments when you feel down, and frustrated.  HireFriday reminds people that you are neither alone or forgotten.  HireFriday reminds people that they have tremendous value.  Most importantly HireFriday gives you access to people who are in a position to hire.  HireFriday gives you access to people who are willing to open up their contact networks, and invite you inside.

Most importantly HireFriday gives you access to people who want to support your job search in meaningful, useful, and important ways.  I am one of those people.  @HRMargo has almost 6000 followers, most of whom are people in a position to either hire you, or refer you to someone who can hire you.  The majority of the people who follow me are Employers Recruiters, Job Board Professionals, HR Professionals, Business People from fortune 500 companies, and a diverse group of business people from a variety of industries.  Because I’ve devoted my life as a volunteer to help unemployed job seekers, I have a large following of people in the midst of a career transition.  These people include sharp graduate students looking to into America’s world-class companies, college students looking to land the job of their dreams, members of Gen Y & Gen X looking to advance their careers, and the most talented Baby Boomers in the world.  My following is diverse.  Our facebook page, and linkedin group grows daily. In addition I have other Twitter, and Facebook accounts that have amassed a huge following because people know my heart is and always will be in the right place (with the job seekers who need me, and with the companies that are ethical, and embrace the values of integrity, life-long learning, and respect for humankind). Our facebook page and group, and our linkedin group provides boots on the ground training to give job seekers the skills, knowledge, and abilities they need to find a job.  Access to these groups are free of charge.  The pro bono work I do is a critical part of my values.  I only charge people and companies for my individual, and personal time.  Without further ado here are the questions we will discuss during #HFChat November 26.  I started #HFChat on twitter in May, 2010.  Please read @AvidCareerist.  She composed Friday’s questions.  Donna Svei, and Tom Bolt agreed to be the co-moderators of HFChat two weeks ago.  Donna and Tom make HFChat both interesting, lively, and worthwhile.  I also must mention my HireFriday volunteer facilitators, Joanne Wolfe, and Jillian Page.  Joanne, and Jillian help me with Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook, as job seekers, HireFriday is a valuable part of their lives.

Q1: From the smallest kindness, to the biggest ticket item, share your ideas for holiday gifts for #jobseekers. 

Q2: Brainstorm: What opportunities for networking do the holidays present?

Q3: How can a #jobseeker best prepare for holiday networking opportunites?

Q4: How do you overcome the anxiety, blues, over scheduling & other stresses that come along w/the wonders of the holidays?

Q5:What questions do you have about your #jobsearch and the holidays?

Please visit our site where you can get access to our transcript.  The HFChat transcript will be available by 2 p.m. Friday.  Please feel free to get linkedin with me Margo Rose.  I accept invitations from everyone in the HireFriday community.  I care a lot about you, today and every day.  If you need comfort or support during the holidays, email you telephone number to HRMargoRocks@gmail.com.  I will schedule a time that we can speak.

Transcript

If you want a transcript of the chat, come back any time after 2pm US ET today. I will run the transcript and post a link right HERE.

#HFChat Team

Hire Friday Founder and #HFChat Moderator: Margo Rose.

Co-Moderators: Tom Bolt and Donna Svei.

HireFriday facilitator & Herder of Career Cats: Joanna Wolfe.

Blogging

Bloggers, please feel free to blog about ideas from #HFChat. Kindly provide attribution for any tweets quoted and a nod to #HFChat and each member of the #HFChat Team in your post. Thank you for extending the conversation!

My deepest, and most sincere thanks goes to Donna @AvidCareerist for developing this week’s questions, and for her willingness to pitch in as a meaningful contributor.

Margo Rose, Founder & CEO of HireFriday and the brand new website http://hirefriday.com launching in 2011.

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Strategy. Where would we be without one? Rowing rudderless down a rapid river without a paddle. If we don’t have an object, strategy, and plan our efforts are fruitless. The low rate of return is a waste of time. More importantly, if you are a recruiter, and your recruitment techniques are bad, you risk your reputation, and good standing in the recruitment community. Furthermore, you risk alienating job seekers, and clients which is just a faulty business practice. The the gold-standard recruiters, and recruitment firms this is not news. However; to job seekers it is a validation of how damaging poor recruitment practices can be.

Strategy. If you are a job seeker, and you are not both disciplined, and strategic in your job search planning, you will stall your re-employment, and sabotage your morale. In this economy, the unemployment rates can be depressing, and attitude deflating. If you subscribe to this blog, I consistently challenge job seekers to “think like a recruiter.” Likewise, I challenge recruiters to put themselves in the mindset of a candidate, and cultivate empathy for the job seeker, as well as the client. A recruiter must keep ever present in their minds that your candidate may one day be the hiring manager who will retain your services. Furthermore, the candidate you place, and even those you don’t place will be a treasure trove of referrals.

Strategy. I am a fierce candidate advocate. In addition, Compassionate HR isn’t just the name of my radio show, it is a way of life. I straddle the worlds of career development, recruitment, training and development, and organization effectiveness. First, let me define compassion. The dictionary defines compassion as follows:

“A feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.”

In 2007, I was struck my deep sympathy, and grief in the loss of 2 family members, and in the loss of the family members of dear friends. Compassion, however; does not mean a measly groveling of emotionalism. Rather, it reflects the mindset of equanimity. It acknowledges the suffering all around us, and a willingness to serve to alleviate the suffering that we are able. Compassionate HR, Recruitment, and Social Media is a way of being. It is a method of outreach to my professional community. There are those who would argue too much compassion can get in the way of working with our clients. I beg to differ. Compassion is a sound business practice so long as it is matched with sound pragmatic methods.

Recently, I have noticed an over abundance of pre-scheduled job spamming in the HireFriday, Job Angels, Jobs, and Careers twitter streams. This spray and pray recruitment approach is a joke. It is a fallacy that must be exposed. It is a bad business practice that alienates job seekers, and the average business person in your twitter/facebook network. News Flash recruiters. Nobody cares about your indiscrimanent job postings. Be strategic. Find the right venues for your job postings. Search the new media venues industry relevant candidates, and engage them in a dialogue about the jobs opportunities you have to offer. If I am not a java developer do you think I care to see your java developer job posts? I don’t, neither do most job seekers.

People may wonder: why am I so adamant about keeping the HireFriday twitter stream for candidates only? It is because I was once a job seeker who was turned off by streams that did not post relevant job postings. I’d unfollow companies that posted nothing but jobs. If I want to see job opportunities, I’d follow TweetMyJobs and request industry relevant jobs only. I’d go to a job board, see who’s hiring, then leverage my linkedin contacts to make inroads into the company. I’d tweet to the executives of companies where I wanted to work, and build those relationships. I’d tweet to the recruiters who were credible, ethical, and dignified, and build those relationships. I’d network with colleagues, and take those relationship from online to a face to face meeting, if local, and a teleconference if not.

There are ways to do things. There are ways to not do things. The reason why HireFriday is a success is precisely because it features, supports, and encourages job seekers. Most job seekers might watch the #jobs stream, and run a twitter search for key words that match their job title, but will they follow and watch a stream of just plain spammy, irrelevant jobs? I argue no!. HireFriday connects people to people who can offer contacts, opportunities, and jobs. If it were to become a mixed media of jobs, and people it would lose readers, members, and the job seekers would soon scatter, and disappear. I’ve seen this countless times with other online communities.

Strategy: in order for job seekers and recruiters to be successful in the use of HireFriday, they must connect with one another offline, and find one another online. People ask: can anyone control a twitter stream? I’d argue yes. I do it all time. I do not own the HireFriday stream, our community does. I manage the stream. I watch the stream like a hawk. I consistently post guidelines for job seekers, recruiters, and companies to follow. If I see someone behaving contrary to our community values, thus destroying the integrity of our group, I redirect them, and stop with if necessary.

You see, I am a fierce advocate. I’ve been a fighter of the good fight all my life. I am part sweetheart, and part scrappy terrier nipping at the heels of the big dogs. One thing I have learned is this: if you want to run with the big dogs, you have the aim for the high bushes. I encourage recruiters, and job seekers alike to aim for the high bushes, take a quality strategic approach that will yield fruitful results, and when necessary, take the high road. I also advocate fighting for your rights, your beliefs, and your integrity. In the final analysis, no one can strip us of our dignity, our integrity, and our self respect unless we let them.

Now it’s time for today’s theme song: The Beastie Boys Anthem: “You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party.” I selected this song for four reasons. 1) It’s fun. 2) You gotta fight for your rights. 3) I’m a rebel at heart. 4) If you want to play hard, delay gratification, be strategic, work hard, then party.

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Today’s Guest Post is by Josh Letourneau. Josh is blogger with Fistful of Talent, and has been a leader in the recruiting industry since 2003. He is also the co-host of our HireFriday Chat (Friday noon-1 est). Without further ado I give you, Josh Letourneau:

Job-Hunting During Today’s Recession: Go Guerilla or Go Home!

Along with everyone involved with #HireFriday, I want to see you get hired. Shooting straight, I’ve been in your shoes – I know how it feels to get sucked into the black hole roller-coaster of job hunting. When people ask me why I got into Recruiting, I honestly tell them it’s because I was once a Candidate that believed there had to be a better way. Little to no contact from Recruiters sucked. Setting my expectations and then missing timeline after timeline sucked. Getting past an initial phone-screen and then waiting 2 months to speak with the Hiring Manager sucked. Applying to jobs online, getting a “Thank You for your application” message, and then seeing the same job advertised for months on end sucked. Spending an hour or more tweaking a cover letter that generated little to no response sucked. You get the picture – I know how tough it is to be in your shoes.

After I “joined the dark side” and became a Recruiter myself, I learned much more about how the game is truly played. Put simply, Recruiters have their hands full. Within organizations, Recruiters are swamped with more open jobs than they can realistically handle. Many Hiring Managers don’t respect HR or the Recruitment function, so they provide little to no feedback on potential candidates. Further, many Recruiters wind up receiving hundreds of applicants for open positions, the large majority of which are not a fit. What I’m suggesting is that life isn’t always cheeky on the Recruiter’s side of the fence, so my first piece of advice is to cut your Recruiter a little slack – they’re not the bad guy, and if approached properly, they could be your greatest ally. Above all things, keep that perspective in mind. No man (or woman) is an island, and when it comes to job searching, you don’t want to be!

That being said, let’s get to the good stuff. The following are lessons I’ve learned that will move you forward, but you’ve got to be willing to go guerrilla. You need a Special Operations mindset – in the Special Ops world, cows that move with the herd need not apply. You have to be willing to become a jackal or you better not show up to the party. What do I mean? Simple — If you’re a risk averse person who likes to play by the same rules everybody else does, then come back to this post in another 6 months when you’re still unemployed. Sorry for the dose of reality, but it is what it is. At the same time, keep in mind that going guerilla doesn’t mean that you lose all tact, or worse, your mind.

The following bulletpoints are weapons – in the right hands, they can mean mission accomplishment (i.e. You get hired). In the wrong hands, they can spell self-sabotage. Employ them with discretion and see your results explode:

Tip 1: Avoid the path most easily traveled. Here’s what I mean: Most job-seekers are cows. They look for jobs online, click apply, and then hope for a response. Well, that doesn’t really work. Sure, some people get hired that way (about 13.2% according to the 2009 Career XRoads Source of Hire Report), but for the most part, it’s a losing strategy. Think about it — if you put 100 new-hires in a room and pulled out the 13 that get hired through a job board, you still have 87 people standing in the room You need to avoid this path and separate from the cows – when they’re waiting in line outside the building, you should be scheming up a way to climb in the side window.

Tip 2: He who dares, wins. What do I mean? Well, how about going onto LinkedIn and finding out the names of Recruiters working at the organization you’ve applied to. Email them directly – sure, some may see you as a pest, but what other choice do you have? There may be that one Recruiter that appreciates your tenacity and commitment to have a shot at the role. Now, don’t overdo it, but an email and then a follow-up email a week later will help you much more than simply applying and praying for a response. Don’t be afraid to make an all-in bet – “small-ball Poker” is no way to make a final table.

Tip 3: Adapt, Improvise, Overcome. Social Media should be leveraged to the best of your advantage. Search LinkedIn and Twitter for either Recruiters or current Employees of your target organizations. Reach out to them and make contact in a meaningful way. Have something interesting to talk about, not the typical “I need a job” message. I always tell Candidates to do a quick Google News search on the company so you have a platform for intelligent discussion. This makes for great conversation fodder not only on Twitter, but also LinkedIn Groups. Trust me, you’ll stand out.

Tip 4: Employ a Non-Traditional Approach. I say that in today’s Digital Age, it’s in your best interest to move beyond solely using a paper resume. Start using VisualCV instead, and as I’ve mentioned in the past, your highest probability of landing a new job is through video. Note, however, that if you create a video on your own, you may be playing with fire . . . so your better bet is to find an Executive Recruiter (“Headhunter”) that leverages video to present their Candidates. Believe it or not, your ability to get past the other 10 Candidates you’re competing with often comes down to your Recruiter’s ability to powerfully present you, not the words written in your resume.

My hope is that today’s post leads you to reconsider your current job-search strategy. Remember that the main advantage you have is your will to compete; your will to win. Sure, skills and experience are differentiators, but willpower can more than make up for a skill or two that you need to shore up. When you go guerilla, your results will improve – you’ll get more shots at jobs, more interviews, etc. Ultimately, that’s what you’re really after, right? All it takes is one. So get out there, go guerilla, and make it happen!

Jul 22, 2010 7:18:05 PM

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